Head rest cover



9, 1967 A. STRUBLE E AL 3,318,632

HEAD REST COVER Filed Sept. 28, 1965 F l G. 4. f f V M 77 3, E

United States Patent 3,318,632 HEAD REST COVER Albert Struble, 508Irvingion Road, Drexel Hill 19026, and Merritt L. Moflitt, Jr., 9Weirwood Road, Radnor, Pa. 19087 Filed Sept. 28, 1965, Ser. No. 490,852

2 Claims. (Cl. 297220) The present invention relates to a head restcover, particularly to a removable sanitary head rest cover adapted foruse in public transportation type vehicles.

Conventional head rest covers for seats located in commercialtransportation vehicles, such as in aircraft, buses, railway cars andthe like, usually comprise a cloth towel secured to the head rest bybutton-and-eye fasteners, snap fasteners or the like. This type headrest cover is provided with one fastening element on the towel or coverand the other fastening element on the back of the seat. After use, anattendant may remove the cover and it will be laundered for reuse.

Cloth towels are initially relatively expensive, and when the cost oflaundering them and the losses due to unauthorized removal are added,the expense of the cloth towel becomes prohibitive as compared to thenewer, felted, unglazed paper type. Thus the latter type of head restcover has become increasingly popular. In the Struble Patent No.3,113,803, a felted body, unglazed paper head rest cover is illustratedin which a Velcro type fastener is attached to the head rest cushion andthe cover contains a plurality of holes which permit, when used with aspecial tool, the projection of the velcro books through the holes andthus provide securing of the cover thereto. However, the tools areeasily misplaced or lost, and it is difiicult to properly secure thehead rest cover to the fastener absent the tool. Without properfastening of the cover to the head rest vertical and lateraldisplacement of the cover results.

In view of the above, it is a principal object of the present inventionto provide an inexpensive cover having fastening means thereon whichpermit quick attachment and disengagement from the fastener located onthe head rest cover, without any special tools, but which when in usewill resist displacement by lateral or vertical movement.

Another object of the present invention is to provide novel fasteningmeans on the rear of a head rest cover, which fastening means isinexpensive and permits the cover to be discarded after each use andreplaced by a clean cover.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had byreferring to the following specification and claims taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a seat back having securedthereto a head rest cover constructed in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG, 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of the reverse side of the head restcover illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and illustrating novel fasteningmeans utilized in conjunction with a fastener on the head rest;

FIG. 4 is an end view of the portion of the fastening means illustratedin FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a portion of the fasteningmeans illustrated in FIG. 3 and as shown in the dot-dash circle of FIG.3;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 66 of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary perspective view of another embodiment offastening means which may be secured "ice to the back of the head restcover to form a part of the fastening means.

Referring now to the drawing, and especially FIG. 1 thereof, a seat back10 having a head rest portion 11 has secured thereto a strip 12 ofVelcro type pile fabric 13. The pile fabric 13 permits attachmentthereto of a ering of the seat whereby the hooks are alignedlongitudinally of the seat back 10. For reasons which will becomeevident hereinafter, when the pile fabric 13 has hooks 16 which areoriented in the same direction, it is preferable that the hooks bedirected upwardly. Of course as is well-known, some of the hook pilematerial presently available has hooks of random orientation and in theevent that this type of pile fabric is used on a strip secured to thehead rest portion of a seat, there is no need to take note of theorientation of the hooks. When using a pile fabric of either of theaforementioned types, i.e. fixed or random orientation hooks, the strip12 may be secured to the seat back upholstery in any suitable manner asby sewing, gluing etc.

The head rest cover 14 may be formed of any inexpensive andyet'relatively durable material, preferably however, it is formed of astrong, thin, flexible material such as a soft, felted unglazed paper ora non-woven fabric.

In accordance with the invention, novel attachment means 15 is connectedat or near the upper edge along the back of the head rest cover 14,which attachment means insures easy connection of the head rest cover 14to the strip 12 on the head rest portion 11 of the seat 10. To this end,the attachment means 15 comprise-s a nonwoven fabric, formed of either anatural or synthetic material, and including raised pile portions havinga cross sectional depth sufficient to ensnare the hooks 16 associatedwith the pile fabric 13.

The preferred embodiment of the attachment means 15 comprises anon-woven material 17 having raised resilient ribs 18 of fiber. It wasdiscovered that when the ribs comprise raised piles of generallyunbroken fibers, in the present instance substantially laterallyextending, the engagement of the hooks with the ribs 18 is assured bysimply pressing the attachment means 15 against the pile fabric 13.Intermediate the ribs, and as best shown in FIGS. 3-6 is a fiber lattice19 which connects adjacent ribs to each other.

The orientation of the ribs of the attachment means 15, placed on theback of the head rest cover 14, is relatively unimportant, in theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 the ribs 18 extend in the longitudinaldirection,

i.e. length wise of the head rest cover 14- which insures betterengagement with the hooks 16 when the hook orientation is upwardly, asshown in FIG. 2. A material such as above-described is presently beingmanufactured by the Chicopee Division of Johnson & Johnson under thetradename Masslinn.

Another embodiment of an attachment means 25 is illustrated in FIG. 7wherein the attachment means comprises a synthetic fiber includingraised pile portions having a cross sectional depth sufiicient toensnare the hooks 16 associated with the pile fabric 13. In the presentinstance, the raised synthetic fabric comprises a foamed plastic havingan inter-connecting, resilient, lattice network 26 defining smallapertures 27 therein. In the manner similar to that above-described,pressing the Foam.

Application of the head rest cover to the attachment means may beefiected by a thin film of glue or the like and connection of the coverto the strip 12 is effected merely by pressing the portion of the headrest cover having the attachment means on the back thereof against thepile fabric. Disengagement of the head rest cover from the attachmentstrip 12 is effected by grasping one corner of the cover and'by pullingthe cover away from the attachment strip.

Thus a novel attachment means'for a head rest cover is provided 'for usein conjunction with a Velcro type fastener, which material isinexpensive, requires no auxiliary attachment tools, and which permitsdisposal of the head rest cover after it has been used.

- Thus although the invention has been described with a certain degreeof particularity, it should be understood that the'present disclosure isonly exemplary of the invention, and that numerous changes in thedetails of construction, and the combination and arrangement of partsmay be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the inventionas hereinafter claimed. a

What is claimed is:

1. A head rest cover for connection to a strip secured to the head restportion of a seat back, said strip having I upstanding hook pileelements with the hook orientation in a first direction; a removablehead rest cover of strong, thin, flexible material; attachment meansadjacentone edge of said head rest cover; said attachment 'meanscomprising a non-woven fabric including a plurality of ribs of raisedresilient pile portions containing fibers extending in a seconddirection perpendicular to said first direction, said ribs spaced fromone another and extend ing substantially perpendicular to said fibers;and said raised pile portion having a cross-sectional depth sufiicientto ensnare said upstanding hook pile elements.

2. A head rest cover in accordance with claim 1 wherein said ribs areinterconnected by a fiber lattice.

References Cited by the Examiner Makansi 2s 72.2

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner.

FRANCIS K. ZUGEL, Examinerr

1. A HEAD REST COVER FOR CONNECTION TO A STRIP SECURED TO THE HEAD RESTPORTION OF A SEAT BACK, SAID STRIP HAVING UPSTANDING HOOK PILE ELEMENTSWITH THE HOOK ORIENTATION IN A FIRST DIRECTION; A REMOVABLE HEAD RESTCOVER OF STRONG, THIN, FLEXIBLE MATERIAL; ATTACHMENT MEANS ADJACENT ONEEDGE OF SAID HEAD REST COVER; SAID ATTACHMENT MEANS COMPRISING ANON-WOVEN FABRIC INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF RIBS OF RAISED RESILIENT PILEPORTIONS CONTAINING FIBERS EXTENDING IN A SECOND DIRECTION PERPENDICULARTO SAID FIRST DIRECTION, SAID RIBS SPACED FROM ONE ANOTHER AND EXTENDINGSUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO SAID FIBERS; AND SAID RAISED PILE PORTIONHAVING A CROSS-SECTIONAL DEPTH SUFFICIENT TO ENSNARE SAID UPSTANDINGHOOK PILE ELEMENTS.